"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Open letter to President Obama on Brothers to the Rescue & Gerardo Hernandez

Marc Masferrer, in his excellent blog Uncommon Sense, reported on September 12 that a group of American artists were petitioning President Barack Obama to release five Cuban spiesconvicted at trial of various crimes, including involvement in the shoot down of the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes in 1996, killing three American citizens and one American resident. I decided to present my contrasting point of view in the letter I sent to President Obama (reproduced below) and also encourage you to sign an online petition opposing the release of Gerardo Hernandez and calling on the remaining killers at large to be placed on an Interpol watch list.

Why hasn't the U.S. Department of Justice under your Administration or the previous one of George W. Bush presented Interpol with an arrest warrant for the three Cuban Air Force officials indicted for the 1996 murder of four U.S. nationals in international airspace and for the Cuban agent involved in the conspiracy to have them killed? It has already been 11 years in the case of Juan Pablo Roque and seven years in the case of the men who gave the order and pulled the trigger committing an act of state terrorism in which Americans were murdered.

What is the United States government waiting for?

Secondly, it is dismaying to learn that Gerardo Hernandez’s name is being raised in a possible exchange or release. He has had due process in a trial with the best attorney’s money could buy that have put on a zealous defense and appeals process for their client. Gerardo Hernandez’s conviction on conspiracy to commit murder is the only justice the victims and their families have achieved to date.

I am opposed to the exchange or release of Gerardo Hernandez and ask that the others responsible for the extrajudicial killing of these four human beings be placed on the Interpol terrorism watch list.

Sincerely,

- John J. Suarez

"The hope of impunity is the greatest inducement to do wrong." - Marcus Tullius Cicero